Nederland made the most of a baseball playoff series within a short radius of its own backyard.

As a reward of beating Port Neches-Groves, the Bulldogs will continue their postseason theme of “One More Week Together” at the University of Houston and face the 10th-ranked ballclub in all of Texas. Magnolia West (26-5) and Nederland (22-11-2) will square off in a best-of-three 5A Region III semifinal Wednesday and Thursday at 6:30 p.m. each night, with Game 3 scheduled for the same time Friday if necessary. The winner will take on either Georgetown, a 13-1 and 4-3 winner over Porter, or Santa Fe, a 2-1 and 5-4 survivor over Barbers Hill.

Nederland lost the 2018 5A Region III quarterfinal to Barbers Hill at UH.

In living up to the theme, Bulldogs coach Bryan Spell coined another phrase after Saturday’s win: “We’re not pretty but we’re dang sure gritty.”

The Bulldogs collected five hits in each of the two wins this past week after PNG’s Grant Rogers held them to two in Game 1. A four-run fifth inning Saturday, aided by two hits and three straight walks (one intentional), broke a scoreless tie.

“We were just looking for one at the beginning,” Spell said. “We just wanted to crack the ice a little bit. We finally got it. From there, we scored a few more. It’s kind of a blur right now. The kids played great. I’m extremely proud of them.”

Jacob Mares threw a four-hit, complete-game victory, holding the Indians (21-15-2) scoreless until one out in the seventh inning.

“He’s another guy who’s quietly done a lot of big things for us,” Spell said of Mares. “He’s come in and saved a couple of games in district. He’s a tough kid. We’ve got a group of tough kids. We earned one more week together. We’ll go to work and see if we can earn one more after this.”

PNG coach Scott Carter, two years removed from the Indians’ championship season, was left to rue his team’s missed chances to send home runners in scoring position, but he added he “couldn’t be more proud” of the team that started the campaign 2-8-1 and went on to beat eventual District 21-5A champion Barbers Hill.

“If it can’t be us, I’m glad it’s them [Nederland],” Carter said. “I hope they go compete and go do well.”

PNG won Game 1, 2-1, at Nederland on Thursday. Nederland stayed alive with a 3-0 payback at The Reservation.

Magnolia West, the District 19-5A champion, is ranked 10th in MaxPreps’ statewide poll and 93rd in its national rankings. The Mustangs are 15-2 in neutral-site games.

Nederland settled a three-game set with PNG on neutral turf, winning Saturday’s Game 3, 5-1, at Lamar University’s Vincent-Beck Stadium.

West, which missed the 2018 playoffs after a 9-14 season, is 6-0 this postseason after being swept 4-3 and 11-9 by College Station in the regular-season finale. The Mustangs have swept Willis, Pflugerville and Tomball to draw Nederland.

Second-year head coach Justin Faltysek said the mindset of the Mustangs changed from last year.

“I think we already felt we had the pieces here,” Faltysek said. “We lacked leadership. We had a meeting and set our goals. They had some incentive, and they had goals to work toward. The mental side was a big part of it, too.”

The Mustangs approached the mental game by not taking days off, the coach explained.

Among his pitching staff, Connor Phillips (11-3, 1.29 ERA) is an LSU commit, and Robert Revels (10-1, 1.4 ERA) is a left-hander headed to Hill College, between Dallas and Waco in Hillsboro. Junior Carson Carpenter (.414 batting average) leads a West team that hits .369 and has homered 18 times this year, with seniors Dylan Van Wicklen and Zach Wall batting .390 and .385, respectively.

The Bulldogs are now two rounds away from making their first state tournament since 1998, which was the program’s third in a four-year span. The 1999 Bulldogs, who had last met PNG in the postseason, reached the 4A Region III finals before losing to Brenham in two games.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews